How to be a Hybrid Children's Author by Addy Farmer

How to be a Hybrid Children's Author by Addy Farmer

Before I begin, I'd like to introduce you to Milly and her mum and dad. They are characters in a chapter book I've been working on with Child Bereavement UK called, I Love You, Sunshine. It is a sad story about how dad takes his own life and the effect it has on Milly and her family. But it is also a story about love. Please read to the bottom of my blog to find out how you can help support this project. 

I Love You, Sunshine - ©Darren Gate's illustration
of Milly and her mum and dad

BUT DO READ THE BLOG FIRST! LET'S BEGIN WITH A DEFINITION

What is a hybrid author? Let's begin with a definition (warning: may stray from any number of dictionaries). For me, being a “hybrid author’’ is to be a writer prepared to seek out her creative opportunities wherever she may; she wants to be published traditionally but is also prepared to think widely about other routes to being published. 

LET ME EXPAND A LITTLE

I am published by two traditional publishers. Grandad's Bench is a chapter book illustrated by Ruth Rivers and published by Walker. My picture book, Siddarth and Rinki, illustrated by Karin Littlewood, came out with Verna Wilkin’s magnificent publishing house, Tamarind (which was subsequently absorbed into the Penguin Random House group). My next picture book, Worlds Apart was signed to one publisher but, after an agonising length of time; one foreign rights deal, one publishing house change and THREE illustrators later; it was dropped when it failed to gain interest at Frankfurt. Harsh but true. It taught me a few things:

• Never wait around for a book to be published. Always be at work on the next one. Time is precious

• Keep up with your reader and what they like - I didn’t want to get stuck in the past with my imagined reader. The children’s market is shifting and dynamic. Keeping up with what children and their carers are reading. This does NOT interfere with artistic integrity - it is a way of informing your creativity.

• Get organised! I went on a pre-pandemic writing retreat back in January with my excellent pals, Juliet Clare Bell and Rebecca Colby. There, I got to grips with being organised with laser-like purpose. Wahay! I set flexible goals and objectives for 2021 and it has framed my approach to this writing year! I work hard and I work smart.

• Think creatively about who you can write for.

Okay, thinking creatively is the biggy. Yes, of course I would like to be published in a traditional way again. I love being part of a professional team; I love being edited; I love the to and fro of illustrations and edits. I also love knowing that a big publishing company has endorsed my writing. That is partly what gave me the confidence to broaden my thinking and branch out into writing for non-traditional routes.

Christmas Island - here we come!

A BAGFUL OF STARS

My first commissioned picture book was, A Bagful of Stars with the brilliant Bridget Marzo illustrating. The story of A Bagful of Stars was one of hard work and absolute joy. The queues for signing were looooooooong! Bridget and I had a ball!

Any chance to wear a pair of deely boppers

This book came about through luck and making connections and then quite frankly just asking for the job. Someone I knew from The Rotary Club of Scunthorpe approached me in my capacity of ‘the only children’s writer in town’, to help her find a children’s author who could come up with a Christmas picture book for them. I said, ‘I’ll do it!’ even before the flat fee was mentioned. Oops. So, think for a mo before you agree to anything. For me, I had a track record as a published writer and there was no reason to accept a relatively small fee. But what swayed me to accept the project was my heart. What came out of the project was definitely not a personal financial success and this is something you must think about on a personal level but also, perhaps, to ensure that we, as a body of picture book writers, are given the professional recognition we deserve. 

Working on a A Bagful of Stars gave me a few insights into undertaking and running your own picture book project

• Understand your worth - you are a professional writer and you are not doing anything for ‘the exposure’

• Have a fantastic designer - we did with the brilliant Simona Sideri

• Maximise the income with workshops

• Create educational resources/CPD in school training

• Maximise the book’s reach through schools by approaching relevant council education peeps

• Use the project leading experience to sell the next project

• Make links and collaborate with creative partners e.g children’s theatre, animation, add music and songs. 

The book went on to be reprinted and is still being bought today for Christmas. And yes, I will be investigating selling through this fantastic sounding bookshop.org. 

HOW DID I GET MORE WORK FROM THERE?

I used that experience of working with creative partners in theatre and music (all found via my local council), to suggest another more ambitious project - a picture book which could be adapted as a piece of musical children’s theatre. A Place called Home, illustrated by the wonderful Louise Gardner, was conceived and developed with the North Lincs Music Hub and Rhubarb theatre in Lincoln. This project, from 2017, was properly funded by the Arts Council and is still used by North Lincs primary schools and has been performed by Rhubarb Theatre  in different theatres to big audiences. It was one of the highlights of my writing career to be one of my own characters and have 500 school kids scream at me (you know what I mean).

Rhubarb Theatre let me play a Pirate from Mars
at the Trinity Arts Centre in Gainsborough.
There was A LOT of screaming  

I WAS ALREADY THINKING ABOUT FURTHER OPPORTUNITIES ...

I examined my own hobbies and interests. Was there anything in those extra-curricular activities which might transfer into ideas for a picture book? 

I made a list!

Clouds

Space

Family

Cake!

Flying

Medieval history

Peat and the environment

The great Outdoors

I might expand the list like so …

• Clouds. I’m a member of the Cloud Appreciation Society and I am thoroughly absorbed in the ‘inventor of clouds’ - Luke Howard. I’ve found a gap in the usual narrative and I am writing with a view to pitching to a traditional publisher 

• Interested in space and space travel - always fascinating to me, especially now with the developments on the moon. Look for the next anniversary or big anniversary.  

• Family history - who might become a subject for a narrative non-fiction book? I am fascinated by my own grandmother’s involvement in the war time Air Transport Auxiliary. In researching this and the history of aviators, I have found some other fascinating female aviators - this needs careful thinking about because the market already has some great aviation picture book titles. 

• I find the depiction of cats in medieval illuminated manuscripts thoroughly absorbing  (It really is). I could try approaching an organisation like the National Trust or English Heritage. But frankly, this is too niche and would have to be broadened to attract interest

• Being a community builder for a replica Neolithic Trackway (this girl knows how to have fun) -  a lot of my income came through physical workshops but now I’m going virtual and creating a series of school workshops (with a picture book element) for the Isle of Axholme and Hatfield Chase Landscape Partnership (what a mouthful).  

• Being a member of our local Crowle and Peatland Railway - I am writing a narrative non-fiction picture book story called Little Peat. This has been commissioned (at my suggestion) by this local charity in order to inform the local community about the history on their doorstep as well as engaging people in the environmental issues surrounding peat. Where the funding will most likely succeed is with the environmental thrust. 

• Being outdoors is really important to my mental health. In happier times, I run outdoor creative workshops for families and a picture book based on this seems to be a no-brainer. There are specialist mental health publishers like Jessica Kingsley and Upside Down Press to approach.

taking a marshmallow break during an outdoor poetry session

HARNESS YOUR CREATIVITY TO BE A HYBRID AUTHOR

• Think fiction and narrative non-fiction and non-fiction

• Mine your own interests and history 

• Expand your own knowledge with research

• DO YOUR HOMEWORK with regards to other and similar books on the market

• Be bold! Make contact with organisations you might write for. You never know .. 

• Check out the funding bodies and make your own applications e.g Arts Council

• Find help with developing funding applications. E.g. our local MP has an assistant who works two days a week sourcing funding for local projects.

• Look for and create your own writing opportunities with local charities

• LinkedIn - yeah, I know but I have a presence AND was paid to write a picture book story arc for a startup company. I also found work as a story app writer with an education games company.

• Work with other creative collaborators - you never know where it will go!

• Create workshops for education settings and families. 

Watch out for opportunities! (actual Pirates from Mars by Louise Gardner)

Does this sound like hard work? Yep and I’m aware it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Remember to be selective because you’ve got to enjoy it! Work hard but work smart. If you do want to find those opportunities to write differently, they are out there or with a bit of creative thinking, you can make them. As that jobbing writer-hero of mine, Jo Nadin says, “I’ve earned a living doing what I love- which is a rare privilege in itself.”

I LOVE YOU, SUNSHINE

I do, I really do but it's also the title of a chapter book I've been working on for a while together with Child Bereavement UK. I Love You, Sunshine will be an illustrated chapter book for 7 to 10 year olds. It tells the story of how one dad takes his own life and how it affects his eight year old daughter, Milly, and the rest of her family. It is a story of bereavement but it is also a story of love. It is intended as a way for all those families, bereaved by suicide, to know that they are not alone; to build resilience through understanding; and to help take small emotional steps forwards. Child Bereavement UK is supplying the parental guidance notes and the wonderful Darren has begun work on the illustrations. We'd like to publish in Mrarch 2021 and get the book out to CBUK, other bereavement charities and any other organisation which might find it a useful resource. Unfortunately, there is a need for this sort of story. BUT I have to raise the money to pay for it! I've set up a gofundme page to support this project. If you are interested, perhaps you could check it out and share. Thankyou. ❤

Milly and her dad
©Darren Gate

www.addyfarmer.com

The London Book Fair Day Two: It's the UK against the world in book cover design

The talk was meant to be about international perspectives on cover design - there were to be two British publishers — Patrick Insole from Walker Books and Jon Lambert from Templar — and Christine Baker from the French publisher, Gallimard Jeunnesse.

But we lost the French publisher due to the transportation chaos - Antonia Pelari, rights director of Scholastic stepped in at the last minute.

Patrick, Antonia and Jon

Despite the exotic sound to her name, Antonia is as British as the other two speakers making the 'international panel' thoroughly UK led. But I thought the resulting event - though not what it said on the tin - was revelatory about the UK market. Illustrator John Shelley blogged very perceptively about it today.

Jon of Templar showed the evolution of this Eragon cover with the author Christopher Paolini very much hands on - changing the key image up to the last minute. But this is an aberration rather than the rule. The author may be consulted but the opinion that counts the most would be "the client". Who's the client? The bookseller.

Patrick of Walker showed the evolution of international covers for The Savage by David Almond and illustrated by Dave McKean. Candlewick, the American arm of Walker, felt that the original cover (on the right) was too "brutal". So McKean came up with the cover on the left which is the US cover.

It just goes to show that violence is in the eye of the beholder.

Here's the French cover - very chic. Said Patrick, "Even though internationally the covers (of The Savage) look different, there’s a family likeness to all the books."

"Sometimes when authors see the covers of their foreign editions, they are a bit taken aback," Antonia said, because the international interpretation may be so far from their own. "What they need to realize is that those international publishers create a cover that will work within their market and nobody knows that market better than they do."

Antonia showed these covers of Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve and illustrated by David Frankland.

On the left is the UK cover by David Frankland and on the right is the Dutch cover. Indeed this Dutch edition didn't do well. The rights have now reverted and been picked up and the cover on the left is now what bookstores are stocking in the Netherlands. "They don't always get it right," Antonia said.

With the British book market contracting slightly in the downturn, overseas sales have become so important to UK publishers that appealing to all markets has become very, very important.

The problem for picture book illustration in the UK of course, as pointed out by Sunday Times critic Nicolette Jones, who hosted the panel, is that we might end up in a "generic place".

She cited as an example picture book illustrations which show cars with the steering wheel in the middle. "We could end up with a generic picture book land where things look a particular way and not at all like real life."

All this talk of covers made me wonder if my own book TALL STORY (out in May ...  pre-order here - I am not ashamed to beg but please don't make me do it too often) could jump through all the hoops mentioned by our panel. So here are some things that were said and how my cover stands up to them.

It is incredibly hard to make children not look sinister and disturbing. 

Hmm. The child on my cover is eight feet tall. But he doesn't look too sinister.

Tall Story Cover

Illustration David Dean. Cover design Alison Godsby

A luxury space like the Barns and Noble in New York (would have room to display your book cover). But the majority of bookstores cram them in – a lead title might be face out but everything else will be spine. 

Tall Story spine:

Yay! I love that the girl with the basketball points toward the cover as if saying, "Check out this book!"

For the sake of the international market, we avoid putting things on the cover that might be too specific - like a big red double decker bus.

Oops.

Tall Story back cover

It's all not necessarily so of course, the panel said. There are really no rules although it might seem like it.

Getting the cover right is - like everything in the book business - all about balancing risk with doing the best you can - Jon Lambert summed it up beautifully:

What we are trying to sell people is a common goal not to exclude anyone from reading a great book. 

An aside about the cover of Tall Story: I LOVE it --  it's so ... 3D! It's so full of story, whether you're looking at the flaps, the spine, the back or the front. And I especially LOVE the big red double decker bus. I'm sure the Philippine Department of Tourism loves it too! Thanks, David and Alison! You rock!

The Houdini Box by Brian Selznick - picture books make me feel like drawing

I had a fabulous surprise in the post yesterday. Wrapped in plain brown paper, this book arrived. It was from Sarwat - author of the unputdownable goth lit adventure Devil's Kiss - who has just come back from his triumphant first BEA (marred only by the small matter of being mistaken for a terrorist at the airport in New York).

Sarwat harvested a massive haul of books at BEA which he duly shipped back to London and offered up on his blog on a first come, first served basis. I of course leapt at the offer.

And here it is - The Houdini Box by Brian Selznick, the guy who wrote and illustrated The Invention of Hugo Cabret, winner of the Caldecott Medal. I just stared at it for many long minutes. Check out the illustrations on the inside pages:

The text was sparse and the cross-hatched pen and ink drawings were lush.

I was so bowled over that I grabbed my sketchpad, brushed off the cobwebs and spent the evening drawing.



See what one picture book can do?

Our new Children's Laureate Anthony Browne, writing in today's Education Guardian, said:

Most adults will tell me: "I can't draw!" Children, too, as they get older, say the same thing. Something happens to our creativity as we go through the education process; most of us lose touch with it. A stifling form of self-consciousness invades us, whether it be in drawing, writing, singing or (in my case) dancing...

Just before this unhelpful self-consciousness creeps into children, many of them are encouraged to move away from picture books and move into "chapter books" - books without illustrations. Perhaps there's a connection? Read it all

We need more books like The Houdini Box.

I wanna be an illustrator

That's right. I've always wanted to be an illustrator. But there are always too many practical things in the way. For now I content myself with watching wonderful videos like this. 

Speed Painting Masters Angouleme 2009 HD !!
Uploaded by pixeltv

The first artist featured is Moebius a.k.a. Jean Giraud, a favourite from my teenhood.

Psst. I want one of those drawing gadgets too!

Shoo Rayner's Drawing School

Okay, I'm trying to be a good author and ignore all distractions.

However Shoo Rayner is evil and has started a drawing school over on his website. I can't resist watching illustrators draw so now Shoo's new page has seriously set back my plans for world domination.

Here's Shoo teaching us how to draw his archetypal character, the Ginger Ninja.

The Happy Prince on Lookybook

This was on Lookybook in today's post.

Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince, retold by Elissa Grodin and illustrated by Laura Stutzman.

It is so beautiful that words fail me. Click through to view it in larger mode on Lookybook. 
 
 

Publication: No Immunity to Disappointment

I've become a real fan of Radio 4's wonderful obituaries programme, Last Word. The obituary page has always been a good place to discover undiscovered writers - it is where many a journalist has a chance to show off writing style that is otherwise blunted by dry and dusty news reporting.

Ground-breaking writers like Gay Talese (inventor of New Journalism) cut their teeth on obituaries.

Anyway. I've been away on holiday and the news of Pauline Baines' death on 1 August finally reached me via the Last Word programme (listen to the programme 8 August 2008, the item is in the last quarter of the broadcast).

Like everyone else, I had assumed that Pauline Baynes, who illustrated the books of both Tolkien' and C.S. Lewis, had long ago passed away.

Authors and illustrators alike will enjoy this blog tribute from her friend Brian Sibley (author of Shadowlands: the True Story of C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidson) which is full of wonderful anecdote about Baynes and the exclusive circle to which she was privy:

"Met C S Lewis. Came home. Made rock cakes." That's how Pauline's diary recorded one of the two meetings she had with the author who's work she so memorably embellished. It tells you exactly how she viewed her contribution to books that, for millions, of us were seminal childhood reading.

Brian Sibley was also interviewed for the Last Word piece and captures the importance of Baynes to the C.S. Lewis canon:

He (C.S. Lewis) often said that The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe had begun as pictures in his mind ... an image of a faun with an umbrella in a snowy wood, carrying a pile of parcels. Which is why when I look at The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe now, I see that image that CS Lewis must have seen in his head, but of course what I'm actually seeing is the interpretation of it by Pauline Baynes.

However, in this business we're in, producing iconic work does not guarantee immunity from rejection. Her friend, novelist Charlotte Cory, recalls:

She laughed a lot about the fact that every day in the post she got letters from aspiring young illustrators asking her for help when she also got letters rejecting her work from publishers.

Repeat after me ... it's not the arriving, it's the travelling that counts ...

Having said that, author Tom Bullough's story in yesterday's FT Weekend was heartbreaking to the extreme.

I wrote a piece last March about the author who got the agent, got the publisher, got the first book of the trilogy out ... then got dumped. Well, Tom Bullough, got the book deal (The Claude Glass is the story of a friendship between two children from very different backgrounds) then got on the shortlist for the Wales Book of the Year Award, was announced as the winner, was about to step onto the stage ... when the compere suddenly said it was all a mistake.

I set off towards the stage, a TV camera following me. I got to the foot of the stage, but there seemed to be some sort of strange hesitancy. I think I even said something like, “Do you want me to come up there or what?” Thomas then said he’d made a mistake. I hadn’t won.

I must have frozen for a couple of seconds. I’d gone from euphoria to absolute heartbreak.

Tom fears that he will be remembered for the awards fiasco and not for the book which he spent four years writing. This must have been soul destroying. I am sure all of us who continue to live with rejection sympathise with Tom - this book, good enough to be published, quality enough to enter the shortlist of three, deserves better.

Bologna 2008: a selection from the Artists' Wall

One of the unmissable features of the Bologna Children's Book Fair is the Artist's Wall, a series of hoardings near the entrance where artists pin up their work and their business cards in the hope of making contact with clients. Here is a sampling from this year's batch.

Even late in the afternoon of the second day there were still artists pinning up their work.





Illustrators had so many creative ways of leaving contact details.


You could look and look for hours and still keep finding something wonderful to look at.

Now I've got my own Sarah McIntyre

My Bologna roommate Sarah sent this cartoon of me in Bologna.

I've never been described as foxy before but Sarah totally captures my spikey-headed, bleary-eyed late night writing habit.

Thrilled to have my own Sarah McIntyre! Thank you!

Dan Santat's School Visit

I follow the blog of Dan Santat just because I love his drawing (the other artist I subscribe to is Sarah Macintyre. Love her stuff!) Dan does the Disney cartoon The Replacements (I haven't seen it here in the UK but then I don't get the Disney Channel).

Anyway, this is not just about how wonderful Dan is (which he is) but about School Visits. Now I did a little piece on school visits featuring Doomspell author Cliff McNish a while back - school visits are a big deal for children's authors because it's a cool way of getting in touch with one's readers etc etc. Of course, it doesn't hurt either that you could make a little bit of money to supplement your non JK Rowling advance.

So here's Dan's truly super cool video about a week long visit to a school for gifted children in Virginia. We can all learn a thing or two about marketing ourselves here.